News and Events

Penguins at Sea Life Scheveningen

Yesterday (10th of February) building works have started for the construction of a beautiful new penguin enclosure at Sea Life Scheveningen.

A piece of the terrace between Sea Life and the adjacent restaurant Binky Beer will be transformed into a true-outdoor area with pond, rocks, waterfalls and underwater area and will house lovely Humboldt penguins. The 150m2 residence meets the strict requirements of the Dutch and European zoo committees and the opening is scheduled early April.

Humboldt penguins can be found in Chile and Peru, they have black and white plumage and weigh between 4-6kg. Our animals are carefully selected from existing colonies of other zoos and Sea Life Centres.

Blacktips born!!

SEA LIFE Scheveningen just welcomed four baby blacktipsharks – all males
The births lasted a total of an hour and a half.

Blacktip shark about to deliver babies

Our blacktip shark is expecting.... This has only happend once in 22 year history of Sea Life Scheveningen. Pregnancy can take between 9 and 16 months so it is difficult to predict when it will happen....the aquarists will stay overnight to watch the situation carefully.

Baby seahorses at SEA LIFE Scheveningen

At SEA LIFE Scheveningen one of our male seahorses has given birth to many seahorse babies.
The babies that are born are the hippocampus erectus, an endangered species.

Every year 22 million seahorses are taken from the wild and are used in dried form for Chinese medicines or as souvenir.

SEA LIFE tries to breed with many different species of animals, says Marjolein Kemna, Displays Curator.

The seahorse babies are fed mysis (tiny shrimp).

Come and see the Street Art Festival in Scheveningen

For the first time ever the city of The Hague organises and hosts the Street Art Festival. Nine renowned, international artists will amaze you with their skills of creating optical illusions and amazing paintings on the boulevard of Scheveningen. With citythemes like: peace & justice, royalty and city & shore the artists will expose their creativity, making 3d and 2d masterpieces. During the weekend of 17 until 19 october you get the unique opportunity to see the artists live in action. The work will last until the end of december. So make sure you come to visit the boulevard of Scheveningen one of these days to enhance your walk down the beach and make it like none other!

International otters in Sea Life

Sea Life has 2 new otters: from the UK a female otter called Skittle and from Germany a male otter called Max.
They first had to get used to eachother but after a few days they are now in the same area. They are being trained and fed 3 times a day.

Vary rare yellow lobster in Sea Life

A Dutch fishing company who was fishing in Canada has given SEA LIFE a very rare lobster… 1 in every 2 million lobsters is blue and the odds of finding a yellow lobster is estimated to be 1 in 30 million! Due to a rare genetic mutation the lobster is yellow instead of red. He is named Luc (short for “lucky” cause he is saved from the pan). After being in quarantine for three weeks he is now ready to go on display.

Unique seadragons in Sea Life (April 2014)

Four seadragons have arived in the Sea Life center in Scheveningen. These sea dragons are unique, as they come from a special breeding program in Australia.
The animals are about 15 centimeters long and two years old. They are in the sea horse family, and have beautiful coloration. Their habitat is unique to the south of Australia.

The animals come from a special breeding program from the Melbourne Aquarium. It is illegal to catch the animals in the wild, and they cannot be seen anywhere else in The Netherlands.

The sea dragons are very sensitive to changes in their environment, such as lighting, and stress easily. but we have installed special foil on the glass. They will be fed with mysis (small shrimps).

Jellies have arrived

Aquarist Marjolein is doing the final check when jellies enter their new home for the first time.

Opening on February 15th 2014: Jelly Discovery

...Enter the enchanting and mysterious world of the jellyfish. Marvel at the spectacle of the graceful creatures as they float through beautiful lit waters.

January 22nd, 2014~ In light of the ongoing dolphin drive hunt season in Taiji, Japan, the Sea Life Marine Conservation Trust (SLMCT) – the conservation charity launched by the global network of Sea Life centres – strongly condemns these activities and calls upon all zoos and aquaria to cease association with the dolphin drive fishery in Japan.

“The Taiji drives involve the herding of dolphins at sea to be then driven and corralled into the confines of a cove. After sometimes being held for days, the dolphins are then slaughtered for meat or kept alive for sale to marine parks and aquaria across the globe,” said Sarah Taylor, Head of the Sea Life Marine Conservation Trust.

“Yearly quotas for these drive hunts reach into the thousands. They are a brutal reminder that we have a very long way to go towards securing a safe and humane future for all whales and dolphins,” she added.

Sea Life, with 44 attractions around the world, is working with Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), to establish the first permanent sanctuary for captive whales and dolphins where they can be retired or rehabilitated and live a more natural life.

Issued by The SEA LIFE Marine Conservation Trust.

SEA LIFE Marine Conservation Trust
The SEA LIFE Marine Conservation Trust (SLMCT) is a registered charity established in 2013 to raise awareness of issues affecting the world’s marine life; to promote solutions, and where relevant, provide funding for valuable marine conservation work across the globe. Its mission is to support marine conservation endeavours, examples of which include those which promote healthy marine habitats and species; protect vulnerable species; and promote sustainable fishing. As part of its remit the SLMCT supports breed, rescue and protect projects and campaigns developed both by the world’s leading aquarium network, SEA LIFE; and other leading conservation organisations.

We appreciate your feedback !

Have you been to Sea Life Scheveningen ? Please share your experience on tripadvisor. Your opinion is important to us: http://bit.ly/19fCdAd.

Thank you in advance.

Otters get special ice cream with this tropical weather

Our otters Sien en Saartje got a special treat..an icecream.. not strawberry flavoured ... nope it was filled with mussels and shrimps.

Sea Life 20th anniversary

Turtle Ernie was spoiled with fishcake to celebrate Sea Life's 20th birthday. The ice cake consists of mussles, shrimp, broccoli and other fish......in the weekend of 8 & 9 June the other fish in the centre will be fed with special birthday fish cakes and/or fish donuts.

Inside of aquarium gets a good clean

The glass on the outside of our aquariums get cleaned everyday... but every now and then the inside also has to be polished. On the picture aquarist Niels has to do the job in a tropical aquarium.....

Sea Life wins ZooSite Award 2013!

The results of the ZooSite Awards have been made public and with 33% of the votes Sea Life has won the award of 'most special birth' with Titulus, our baby black tip reef shark.
Titulus can be seen in our ocean tank, he swims in a special made cage. Shielded by this cage Titulus can slowly and safely adjust to swimming in the ocean tank and the other animals.
We want to thank everyone for voting!

Baby black tip reef shark back in ocean tank

The black tip reef shark baby that was born in October last year is back in his old aquarium, the Ocean tank. After 5 months in quarantine the baby shark finally could swim among the other sharks. Shielded by a cage the shark can slowly and safely adjust to swimming in the ocean tank and the other animals. We named the shark Titulus, which means proud. Titulus is a male shark and in a couple of weeks the animal keepers expect to release the shark from his cage so he can really swim with the other sharks.

Volunteers wanted in Greece this summer for turtle rescue centre

The stars have arrived

All the starfish of our new exhibition have arrived today ! A dazzling collection of all shapes, sizes and colours:
Red knobbed starfish, chocalate chip, sunflower starfish and many more.
This star-sprangled spectacle can be seen until 5th January 2014.

Otters in the snow

The Sea Life otters Sien & Saar are surprised to see snow in their enclosure......

Early Christmas lunch for otters Sien & Saartje

Our otters were served a stuffed chicken as an early Christmas treat. The chicked was stuffed with nuts, horsemeat and decorated with cranberries and a artemia sauce..... On 26th Dec at 11am they will get a second Christmas meal.

Big bellied seahorse babies in Sea Life Scheveningen

We are delighted to announce the birth of lots of bigbellied seahorse babies. They are doing well and on display. Dad is the one giving birth to the babies...

2 Baby Blacktips born

For the first time in Scheveningen history… our black tip reef shark gave birth to two baby sharks. The pregnancy of a blacktip can take up to 16 months. The aquarists were happily surprised when monday morning two small sharks were swimming in the tropical tunnel. They will hopefully survive the first couple of days and start eating soon..These babysharks fit nicely into our Breed rescue and protect programme.

Flip receives permit for release in the US

The permit, that was requested on the 21st of January 2012, for the release of the stranded Kemps Ridley see turtle Flip has been given. The US government (Fish & Wildlife Services) provided SEA LIFE Scheveningen with this necessary permit last Monday. Because of this US import permit, SEA LIFE Scheveningen can now request the Dutch government for an export permit which is needed for the transport of Flip to the United States where she will be released.Learn more about Flip

Otters Sien & Saartje receive award for most beautiful enclosure

In this picture they receive their award. With over 25% of the votes, the otter enclosure of Sea Life Scheveningen was a clear winner in the Zoo contest. (photo: Inge Reiffers-ZooSite).

Become a facebook fan and maybe you win a cool "airswimmer"

Otters celebrate 1-year anniversary

The two lady otters Sien and Saartje are celebrating their one-year anniversary in their habitat at SEA LIFE Scheveningen. This beautiful otterhabitat, with waterfall and separate bedroom, was opened in April 2011.

This wonderful occasion was celebrated with a nice cake that contains ice, fish, nuts and pieces of meat. We train them daily so they can get used to the aquarists. They eat 15% of their body-weight daily. They eat just like squirrels do, with their frontpaws.

This otterhabitat is also nominated by a Zoo fansite for most beautiful habitat in a Dutch zoo.

Beach clean up weekend 2012

Saturday March 24 & Sunday 25th 2012
at 12 o´clock there is a beach clean up in cooperation with Surfriders Foundation

Volunteers wanted!

Please sign up and help clean up the beach: http://bit.ly/yEq7wt
or simply show up that weekend at 12 o´clock:

Saturday 24th March at 12 pm : at the entrance of SEA LIFE building (Strandweg 13)
Sunday 25th March at 12 pm: in front of Heart Beach Surf school (Noorderstrand, Strandweg 3b)

Baby ray born

On Saturday March 3rd, a baby ray was born.

The name of the ray is "Werner". He is being fed with tiny pieces of squid.

Rays eat their lunch

The rays at Sea Life Scheveningen are being fed 4 times a week...at 2pm
Here is some nice footage of the eating session : http://on.fb.me/wfCAOj

Monsters from the deep now in Sea Life

All the monsters have arrived.... a very dangerous stonefish, 1 scorpionfish, 4 moray eels, 2 spider crabs, 2 monk fish and a 1,7 kg isopod !!! Come and meet them now if you dare.....

Bamboo shark born

Past weekend a black & white striped bamboo shark was born in Sea Life scheveningen. The aquarists called him "Panda".

NEW in Sea Life from February 16th 2012: Monsters of the Deep

In 6 new tanks, our new exhibition brings together some of the scariest-looking creatures of the deep: beasts from the ice depths that resemble giant insects, slimy and slithering things and monsters that look like they have escaped from Sci-Fi monster movies or ancient myth and legend.

Stranded turtle from Mexico in Sea Life

Flip the stranded seaturtle who was found on the beach in Monster... was brought to Sea Life Scheveningen for recovery. He was injured and in shock but we can hopefully strenghten him and bring him back to where he belongs... Mexcio. It´s a miracle that he survived this trip since the water is much colder over here.
The turtle can´t be visited by visitors since we want to offer him a quiet & private recovery. However he can be seen on the "flipcam" on the website of TV West between 9.00 - 17.00 hrs.http://www.westonline.nl/flip-cam

Weigh in for turtles

The two turtles form SEA LIFE Scheveningen had there annual medical check up.
4 aquarists, a diver and a veterinarian were needed to carry the heavy turtles from the ocean tunnel.
Turtle “Bert” now weighs 49,5 kilo and gained 16,7 kilo since their arrival in 2006.
Turtle Ernie now weighs 71,5 kilo and gained 38,7 kilo since their arrival in 2006
We finally know the gender of turtle Ernie… it´s a boy !!
The gender of the other turtle will be announced when blood samples are back in.
SEA LIFE Scheveningen is happy with the healthy toddlers

NEW: Napoleon Wrasse "Lodewijk"

Since monday July 25th SEA LIFE has welcomed a new fish, a 90cm Napoleon Wrasse.
Lodewijk had to spent 4 days in a specially designed underwatercage so the other animals like sharks and turtles could get used to him.